The advent of broadband wireless communications has allowed delivery of rich multimedia content to users on the go. To support such communications, a wireless device may be plugged into a multimedia user terminal, with the wireless device transmitting and receiving the information-containing communications signals, and the user terminal delivering the information to the user in the form of text, graphics, audio, video, etc. For example, a MediaFLO receiver can be plugged into a user terminal such as a mobile phone or a personal computer to enable the user to watch TV over a MediaFLO air interface. Other examples of wireless communications devices include a data card supporting the CDMA2000 EV-DO standard, a data card supporting the UMTS standard, a receiver supporting the DVB-H and/or ISDB-T standards, a data card supporting the GPRS/EDGE standard, and a data card supporting the WiFi standard.
It has been noted that the electrical characteristics of an antenna in the wireless device often vary depending on the physical characteristics of the terminal device coupled to. For example, the quality of the antenna match, gain, and/or radiation pattern may all vary depending on the terminal device size and terminal device position relative to the wireless device. This change in electrical characteristics may adversely affect the transmission or reception of the communications signal, increasing the cost of the wireless device and/or resulting in poorer or even unacceptable performance.
It would be desirable to provide for techniques to optimize the antenna performance based on the characteristics of the terminal device coupled to.